1.
Evolving
Strategies in
Travel Ad Tech
and Bookings
As media buying and delivery technology
expands in every industry, travel marketers
are competing to identify, reach, and con-
vert consumers in an increasingly complex
display-ad environment. Their strategies to
do so are evolving, as technology provides
newly dynamic and newly granular tools
across a spectrum of devices and platforms.
SKIFT REPORT #14
2014
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By James O’Brien and Skift Staff
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2.
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4.
relations management and a broader, deeper, and nuanced knowl-
edge of consumers. As multi-device research and a traveler for
whom mobile is now second-nature continue to define and rede-
fine online behaviors, how to understand what is being measured
— and how to accurately track and attribute different interactions
with a brand to the point of conversion across multiple platforms —
has never been more critical to the future of travel marketing in the
digital milieu.
Evolving Strategies in Travel Ad Tech and Bookings SKIFT REPORT #14 2014
4

5.
Predictive analytics within programmatic media buying are changing
the way the travel industry wins conversions. Travel’s move toward
data-driven marketing represents a new horizon for an industry that
carved out its early online reputation with user-generated content
(UGV) and an embrace of behavioral and contextual understandings
of its audience. The programmatic sea change is well underway.
A recent Lyris/Economist Intelligence Unit study shows the shift in
broad strokes: 23% of executives in the travel industry designate cus-
tomer-data analysis as the lead technology guiding product research,
as compared to 18% across all other industries. Travel boasts the largest
percentage of buy-in among the sectors in the study — surpassing auto-
motive, entertainment, and banking.
Perhaps this comes as no surprise. Travel started the millennium
as a leader in the digital and social space.
“UGC was a huge,” for travel, said Eric Ingrand, vice president of con-
tent marketing for the EnVeritas Group. “Yes, now you have star-ratings
for all kinds of products but travel started this. While everyone was
struggling to tweak website graphics and content to gain greater conver-
sion rates, travel found a way to really change the game on the conver-
sion side — it let real people rank the hotels.”
UGC, however, came with a less welcome price in the eyes of some.
Negative reviews meant the necessity of damage control — and for
many that prospect prompted a braking effect. Marketing departments
found themselves grappling with a love-hate relationship when it came
to the user reviews that started out as such a boon.
Travel also got increasingly wise, in the mid- and late 2000s, to the
value of tracking consumer activity. Gathering data from loyalty pro-
grams and purchase histories, agencies and providers saw the potential
of capitalizing on information surrounding browsing tendencies. Travel
Introduction
Evolving Strategies in Travel Ad Tech and Bookings SKIFT REPORT #14 2014
5

6.
in the age of Google-fueled search became an even more refined
engine for understanding customers and conversions.
Now, with the advent of new developments in data-driven technology —
the ability to not only capture visitor data but also to target offers and
follow-up pitches — the possibilities of programmatic media buying
stand to change approximately everything about how travel picks its
providers, wages its ad campaigns, and measures returns.
Evolving Strategies in Travel Ad Tech and Bookings SKIFT REPORT #14 2014
6